Pope calls gay families "inauthentic"

BY Advocate.com Editors

January 28 2003 1:00 AM ET

Pope John Paul II warned Sunday against "inauthentic" versions of the family, stressing that a union between a man and woman is the only true one in God's eyes. The pope made his comments after the conclusion of the Roman Catholic Church's world conference on families in the Philippines--a meeting dominated by exhortations from church officials against divorce, abortion, and same-sex marriages.

The pontiff, speaking from his studio window above St. Peter's Square, said the meeting reaffirmed that the family, based on a union between a man and a woman, is the authentic signal "of life and hope for humanity." In defining what he meant by family, he said, "It's certainly not that inauthentic one based on individual egoism. Experience has shown that such a 'caricature' has no future and cannot give future to any society."